


The Shadows of Dunwall

by Svynakee



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: AU?, Emily's reign - Corvo and Daud are long gone, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-19 11:19:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1467595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Svynakee/pseuds/Svynakee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Excerpt from a report on the practices of heretics in Dunwall]</p>
<p>During reign of Empress Emily the Wise, those that forsake the Abbey of the Everyman began to worship two new figures of the Void - the Crow and the Whaler. Despite the scribbled Serkonan found at some sites of worship, it has been confirmed that the practice did in fact originate from Dunwall despite the presence of the Abbey; this has been blamed on the successive disappearances of two High Overseers just before the reign of Empress Emily and the Plague, which has left the city in disarray. </p>
<p>According to several texts found near the shrines, heretics believe that these new gods are more benevolent than the Outsider - a lie, for all beings of the Void seek to destroy mankind - and that they originated as human. Further investigations are required.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shadows of Dunwall

She kneels at the shrine of navy fabric and crow feathers, placing the rune of whalebone marked with black ink. It was hard to come by. The shrine took days to build, and it looms above her with its centerpiece of metal twisted into the shape of a skull. The rune is snug on a bed of more midnight feathers, between an offering of Serkonan grapes and blood sausages – oh, how much they had cost her, but the price is one she would pay a thousandfold – and a doll of a little girl. Finally, she sets down the coin, with Empress Emily the Wise smiling up at her in the lamplight. 

_Protect us,_ she prays. _For we are innocent, for we mean no harm. Our journey will be difficult, but we will persevere. Protect the children, for you are kind. Protect the weak, for you have honor. Give us strength, guard us. Protect the innocent, so that no blood will be shed in our path._

At night, she creeps along the streets of Dunwall, grateful for the passing of the plague. Her sister is there, along with her baby nephew. They were framed, she knows, but do not have the influence to convince the authorities otherwise. What is a serving girl worth, after a golden cameo is found missing? The baby has noble blood, but he does not know it. The mother knows it, so she must disappear. Framed and dishonored, they seek warmer shores with beaches of golden sand. 

They sneak past the gate, and are surprised to find the guard snoring in his chair. The key lies on the table. There is no wine to be seen, and as they take to the streets they encounter no one. When they are resting along the banks of the Wrenhaven, a boat comes out of the morning mists and offers a ride away from the sights of the patrols. They accept, and the old boatman tells them of the faces and lights he sees in the river, as he tried to forget a hopeless love. He says he ferried death himself during the Plague, but death never came. They cannot remember his face. 

As they make it towards the docks, they hear the triumphant cry of a solitary crow, and feel its shadow pass.  


____________________________________________________________________

He knows he doesn't deserve forgiveness. The golden mask, ever-frowning, has been thrown into the corner in a fit of rage. How many people have cursed that face, he wonders, as he stormed into their houses and dragged away loved ones? He’d asked himself before how many were truly heretics, instead of common people who had become too wealthy for their own good. He suspects that the answer may be none. 

He has renounced the Abbey, with its Overseers that dine on succulent roasts bought with the tears of new-made orphans. While the Plague still ravaged Dunwall he had convinced himself that it was for the good of the city, and when it had ended he gave the excuse that he was only following orders. He barks out a humorless laugh as he adjusts the red fabric of the shrine around the whaler’s mask. Restrict an errant mind, lest it seek the truth and realize the flaws of the Abbey. Too long has he been tethered to its twisted ideals. If the light was indeed so corrupt, then he would give himself to the darkness of the Void.

The whale oil was hard to come by, ever since the Pierro-Sokolov synthetic stuff. More expensive, less explosive. Eventually they realised that nothing was worth the price of a life, that nothing would replace one. Why was this not in the Seven Strictures? Never bargain for a life, for there is no coin worth it. And yet, here he was.

The oil glows blue as he pours the circle, far from the candles that light the room. Finally, he adds the blood of a sinner. He takes the knife to the back his hand – the left, a crude mark copied from forbidden books in the Abbey’s darkest rooms. He presses this to the rune he holds, with its songs and whispers. Places it underneath the mask. Pays the price of a single coin, minted with the face of Jessamine Kaldwin, smeared with the blood of the undeserving. 

_I do not deserve redemption, yet I yearn for it. It is impossible to be forgiven for what I have done, yet I seek it. The regret that I feel, the knowledge of what my actions have caused, they threaten to suffocate me. They flood into my heart. I wish to breathe. I wish to live, but I do not deserve it._

The circle flares bright blue, like Sokolov’s old gates when a weeper stumbled in. He feels electrified himself. He goes, feeling the glass eyes of the mask watching him.

Miraculously, his new orphanage gains many sponsors. The children are overjoyed when the Empress herself visits. Food is never in short supply, and nor is the laughter. At night, he feels the floodwaters in his heart, but he is floating.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah I had this theory that those who sufficiently amused the Outsider would be granted a certain form of godhood (actually he just kept them in the Void after death in case they did anything mildly interesting, because trolling whalegod). Corvo means crow, I read that somewhere. I'm sure the internet wouldn't lie to me. /crosses fingers
> 
> As for their deaths... well, I think all the stress they went through and all the balconies they fell off (Daud would have been spared, had I not bought the DLC) would have led to a shortened life. Emily's probably quite old right now, and I don't doubt that Corvo stayed by her side till the end. As for Daud, I like the idea that he became the Royal Spymaster. Kinda poetic, protect the Empress and Empire with that job. He has contacts. Eh.


End file.
